


2 cats

by mightynein69



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Set Vaguely In The Future, as most of my canon-adjacent fics are lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-21 06:14:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19997191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mightynein69/pseuds/mightynein69
Summary: Jester and Caleb keep watch while the group takes a short rest in the jungle.





	2 cats

**Author's Note:**

> Hey ya'll!! Second fanfic on AO3!! whoop whoop. Inspired by the widojest server, who are honestly the most wonderful group of people!! Anyways, read this weird fluff I came up with one night at 3 AM.

It was hot. But not in the fun sexy way, in the gross “oh my gosh i didn’t know so many bugs existed” Hot.    
  
Humid jungle in the middle of nowhere hot.    
  
Which didn’t work well with Jester’s internal heating system. Which means she was sweaty, and gross and  _ tired _ . Everything felt like twice the work, and twice as damp.   
  
She had long since ripped off the sleeves her least favorite dress and ripped out the petticoats that kept it poofy and cute. But there was nothing cute about sweating under 6 layers of crinoline.    
  
Caleb had even taken off his bulky coat, (which really showed you how scrawny he was without the bulk of layers.) He had even tied his scarf around his head as somewhat of a bandana.    
  
(It honestly looked kind of silly, but apparently it worked since Beau did the same thing.)   
  
  
They were  _ still _ trudging through the Jungle, after what felt like hours. Jester and Yasha headed the front of the group, Yasha slashing at vines with her sword. Jester hacked at the bases of plants and vines with her small axe, occasionally just pulling out the tougher ones.    
  
Eventually her hands and arms were heavily scratched and pocked by thorns and bugbites. (Yasha’s were just as bad off.) She would have healed both of them, but she had to save her spells for when they fought something bigger than a carnivorous orchid.   
  
Just like Caduceus had to save his fancy herbal bugspray for “An Idea He Had”.    
  
Jester would usually be fine with that. She’d be like ‘Of course Cad, I’ll help you with your fun idea for a flamethrower!’   
  
But right now all she wanted to do was throw a fit about how much her arms hurt.    
  
Thankfully, she didn’t have to do that because the rest of the Mighty Nein shared her emotions. At least, she assumed they did when the decided to crawl in the bubble for a temporary respite from the bugs and walking. Maybe she could convince them to camp tonight for good, at least  _ soon _ . It was nearly dark.   
  
  
She heaved out a heavy breath as she basically fell onto the ground into a sitting position, guzzling her water canteen. Her eyes scanned her family as they went about their business re-wrapping arms, picking out spells, wiping plant blood off their sword... (Plant blood? Sap? I mean it talked… So..)    
  
Personally, Jester was drawing all the Stupid Idiot bugs being killed. It helped draw her mind from the ache. Also, she hadn’t hardly noticed it (Because in the Bubble you are basically sitting by  _ everyone _ .) But Caleb had scooted over to her during the last few minutes while she angerly scribbled 

  
He was still reading his book, legs curled against his chest and eyes steady on the page. But he was near her, and it was nice that somebody liked sitting by her.    
  
So she drew a little doodle of him, all scrunched up and focused and sitting by her. And well, she’d already drawn all the flowers she’d seen here yesterday… No new ones yet… And she’d probably drawn all of her friends 50 billion times...   
  
“Hey Cayleb~” She sing songed quietly, because Beau and Nott had already passed out.   
  
His eyes darted to her, almost surprised. But once his mind caught up, his face softened and he put his book down.    
  
“Hello.”    
  
He didn’t look annoyed, if anything a little thankful she had talked to him. Which was a bit weird, Usually he at least  _ faked _ being annoyed. That was their  _ thing.  _ Must be tired (She surely was.)   
  
“What should I draw?”    
  
He looked up at ‘roof’ of the bubble.    
  
“Hmm. Have you drawn Frumpkin lately?”   
  
“Good idea.” She said, steadying her eyes on her notebook. She had drawn him yesterday, but you could never draw cats enough. Caleb peaked over, watching her draw but not quite putting his head on Jester’s shoulder like she wanted him to.    
  
She drew Frumpkin with a little top hat and bow tie on. It wasn’t her best work, since she was so tired, but cats could never look bad when drawn. If anything, a badly drawn cat looked better.   
  
  
“Fancy Frumpkin.” She said with a sigh in her words, swiping the pencil to make the whiskers.    
  
By now most of the nein had bedded down, and Caleb was still beside her.   
  
  
“Guess we’re on watch, huh?” Jester said, Leaning her head to the side to bump heads with Caleb’s.    
  
He opened his eyes quickly and nodded, she guessed his head  _ had _ found it’s way onto her shoulder. 

(Of course Jester suspected it wasn’t the comfiest shoulder now that there was no poofy sleeve, Caleb might have disagreed but he had to admit stiff muscles weren’t the best pillow.)   
  
Jester didn’t really feel the need to say anything else, and neither did Caleb apparently. They slipped into silence for what must have been more than an hour.   
  
It was a very nice comfortable silence, that usually only happened between them at home.    
  
Caleb had bought a new two seater desk for the exact purpose, so Jester could draw by him while he studied.    
  
It happened so often, he reasoned, that it was just the easiest solution. It solved the common problem of Jester refusing to sit on the couch and sitting on the floor cross legged next to Caleb’s chair. (Which usually ended up with Caleb studying on the floor beside her, and that wasn’t really good for  _ either _ of their backs.)   
  
Jester’s only experience that came close to comfortable silence besides that, was when her and Beau took turns reading to each other at nights in inns. Or when her and Cad took watches together. Come to think of it, Cad’s whole thing was comfortable silence.    
  
So she wrote that in a curly font in her sketchbook, adding to a list of tattoo ideas she’d occasionally pitch to the nein.    
  
After a few more cats, the drawings devolved into flowers, perhaps tattoo designs for Yasha. Eventually it was a two page spread covered in a variety of them, with stems curling in and out of the white space between flowers. She couldn’t wait to show her in the morning. She went over the lines again a couple times as she thought, trying to rack her brain for something else to draw.   
  
  
“It makes a good sound, your pencil.” Caleb said. rubbing a hand over his eyes in an attempt to wake himself up. Jester had realized a while ago that Caleb had in fact never went back to studying and had been watching her. She didn’t mind, it was just a curious thing to notice.   
  
“One could fall asleep just watching you draw. Too exciting to miss though.”   
  
Jester giggled at that. “What’s exciting about watching me draw?”    
  
Caleb shrugged. “You know, the faces you make when you draw, it’s- it’s, it’s very endearing. When you think you messed up a line, or when you’re trying to make someone look angry you scrunch your face up like - uh- “ He attempts to imitate it, his nose all scrunched up and his eyes squinted.    
  
Jester holds in a laugh, and flushes a bit purple at the ‘endearing’ comment.    
“Well, I haven’t exactly been drawing Angry People today, sorry to disappoint.” She lightly bonks the sides of their heads together again, but her eyes are still on her sketchbook as she draws a flower with a toothy grin. “Although we’ve met our fair share of Angry Flowers today, Haven’t we.”    
  
Caleb’s nods, and she can feel his cheek on her shoulder.   
  
And wouldn’t it be very nice if she could wrap an arm around his waist and hug him right now, she wonders.    
  
Because it would be really nice to hug someone, not for any reason in particular. 

He’s just the closest friend, she thinks. She would have the same urge if anyone else was sitting by her, awake right now.    
  
She wishes maybe Cad had been awake (He loves hugs). But maybe a hug from Caleb would be extra special because they were kind of rare. (Beau has hugged Caleb like 4 times, and looked at Jester weird when she asked what it was like. It was only because he’s the only one in the nein she hasn’t given a proper hug yet! Carrying him while he was half dead doesn’t count.)   
  
But she cleared her mind of the weird hugging thing with a sigh and straightened her back a bit, which funnily bobbed the head on her shoulder up.    
  
“Why don’t you try drawing, Caleb? I’m all out of art juice.” She nudged the sketchbook over to his lap.    
  
  
“Oh no, I’m not good at that sort of thing-” 

  
Jester interrupts him. “But!” She gets ready to defend her idea, because now she’s gotten herself a little curious. “I’ve seen all the circles you’ve drawn in your spellbook and you have to draw all those sigils perfectly. Like calligraphy is sooo hard I bet drawing a smiley face would be like, easy for you.”   
  
He half smiles at her and shakes his head. “I don’t know, I-” She responds by wiggling her eyebrows as she holds her open sketchbook in front of her face and towards him.    
  
“Alright, Alright..”    
  
Jester is already smiling big as she hands the pencil over to him and shifts her body to look at what he’s drawing closely.    
  
He looks like he’s starting a line, but he looks up at Jester. He stares for a moment, as if what he’s trying to tell her is obvious. Which makes her think about how people’s eyes can be pretty no matter how sweaty and weird they look.    
  
But she just sticks her forked tongue out at him, and he smiles.   
  
“What?” She says with an innocent tilted head.   
  
“How am I supposed to draw when you are monitoring me so closely?”    
  
Jester rolls her eyes, but then closes them. “Fine but you better draw something super cool, like a unicorn.”   
  
“I don’t know if, uh, at my art level I can draw unicorns. I will try though.”   
  
  
For extra conformation on how she’s not looking, Jester puts her hands on her eyes and sets her elbows on her criss-crossed legs. Her tail is also swishing behind her excitedly as she waits.   
  
It takes about 15 minutes, and a few times Jester gets bored and flicks at what she thinks is Caleb’s hand. Chiming in every 30 seconds with a “Are you donnee yet?” or a rare “Have you drawn any dicks? You have a reference attached to your body so it’s probably super easy for you.”   
  
Eventually he pokes her shoulder, which shouldn’t make her blush but it totally does.    
  
Her big pink eyes peak around newly opened fingers.    
  
Caleb slides the sketchbook over to her, and she is  _ very _ excited so she does the grabby hands motion and snatches it up. (Also he looks kind of red, but so does everyone else because it’s super warm here, duh, it’s like a 100 degrees.) And Jester thinks about how wouldn’t it be lovely to kiss him on the cheek and feel how warm it is. But that’s a weird thing to think, so she doesn’t.   
  
  
She finally gets a good look at the drawings and by the traveler, if her friends weren’t asleep she would have let out a full on squeal of joy. So she settles with putting her hand on her mouth and bouncing to release the energy.   
  
  
In the corner is a doodle of a unicorn, it’s very round and cute and the lines are so  _ clean _ she’d swear it was done with ink and not pencil. And at the bottom is a sketch of the traveler at a lemonade stand selling dick shaped statues for 2 copper each. (It looks like something she would have drawn, and it’s so cute because the traveler is a stick figure.)    
  
But the middle is what she focuses on the most.    
  
It’s a drawing of  _ her _ .    
  
It looks like he really tried hard on this one because it’s been erased so many times, and the anatomy is off but she doesn’t  _ care _ because it’s  _ her.  _   
  
Its of her with her hands on her eyes and her tail swishing. And a very round frumpkin is sitting beside her in the same sitting pose, tail swishing. Below it is very even hand writing that says. “Two Cats”   
  
  
“This is. The most precious thing. I have seen in my life.”    
  


She lets out, trying not to be too loud but failing. Her eyes dart from his smiling red face to the page in front of her.    
  
“When we get home, I am  _ framing _ this, this is- this is a masterpiece. Love the unicorn. It’s amazing, It’s brilliant, oh my gosh I  _ love _ it.” She gushes, and she hopes this is funny because she wants him to keep smiling. He’s laughing a bit and picking at the binding of his spellbook.    
  
“Ah, I’m glad you like it. I know you- you like silly things.”   
  
“Yes the traveler selling dicks is  _ very _ good he would totally do that. I’m going to show this to him tonight before I go to sleep. He will be  _ thrilled!” _ __  
__  
__  
And Jester is so happy, and she keeps looking at that cute little drawing of her and she bounces a little more. Maybe her energy is what gives her the confidence to quickly ask.   
  
  
“Hey can I hug you? Just cause?”    
  
And, she does wanna ask, because she remembers that he likes it when Nott hugs him, but she wants to make sure.    
  
  
His eyes widen a bit, and Jester thinks, well it is a weird question to ask someone you’ve known for a year and a half.    
  
“Of-Of course, You’ve hugged me before.”   
  
Jester quickly shakes her head, and tries to distract herself from the purple growing on her cheeks, because she doesn’t need to make this weird. “Doesn’t count during battles.”   
  
But, since she’s gotten the go ahead, so she quickly wraps her arms around his torso and presses her face against his shoulder. It feels nicer when you hug someone while in a dress without sleeves on, she decides.    
  
And, he’s a little stiff at first, perhaps from the surprise. Eventually he wraps his arms around her. It’s not the most comfortable hug, because they’re both kind of overheating, and everything is kind of itchy. But it’s worth it because she got a rare and good Caleb hug and that’s super cool.   
  
  
She loosens the hug and, without thinking starts speaking.   
  
“Hey, I know I’ve said this a lot about the whole, like. Group. And, Uh, this might sound weird but-” She pulls back even more from the hug, cause maybe she feels a little more awkward now. But Caleb’s hands are still on her waist and that’s super cool. Maybe she shouldn’t say this  _ right now _ ? Everyone could be awake. I mean she means it but.   
  
“You know, you know I love you all, but you know, just to let  _ you _ know that. I love  _ you _ , specifically. You know, in a-”    
  
Boy does she hate saying this right now but she’s already saying it and he’s retracted his hands now oh Boy, and she’s looking down at her hands in her lap.    
  
“-in a platonic way you know”    
  
Man it’s always weird telling the guys, isn’t it? Right?   
  
She’s bi though, so that doesn’t really make sense!… Why wasn’t it weird when she told Nott! It’s weird for a reason, isn’t it.   
  
And she maybe she doesn’t mean that last part but it’s not like she can clarify  _ now _ because she doesn’t love him  _ romantically _ .  _ Yet.  _ but maybe she does  _ like him  _ that way and boy was that a bad thing to admit to herself and say at the same time.   
  
But Caleb’s smile is very soft but also the kind of sad smile he does at her sometimes. So who knows what  __ that means. Of course she tries not to let him see the intense inner conflict of thoughts she has while she tries to copy his weird worried-happy smile.   
  
And then Caleb suddenly looks kind of uncomfortable because it looks like he’s noticed her nervousness (even if he doesn’t know what’s causing it.)   
  


He doesn't look her in the eyes when he says.

  
“I love you too.”    
  
  
Of  _ course _ his sounds more put together and clear, because it’s the one time that happens for him. And makes her sound like she has something stupid, like, a crush on him. Even though it’s probably true.    
  
  
She sits in front of him, staring at anything but his conflicted face. He didn’t specify if his was platonic too, but it’s probably unspoken, right? Totally. Her and Caleb together? That’s ridiculous. Why would he like _ her _ ? He has better things to do, like winding back time and marrying astrid, or even more likely, dating Fjord or something.   
  
  
“Well, I’m SUPER fuckin’ sleepy.” She tries to yawn and scan how possibly far away from Caleb she can sleep. “So I’m gonna go to bed, night, love you, Ha I can say that now. Like I do with Beau. Isn’t that funny! Anyways, Night!”    
  
  
She waves goodbye, as if she won’t be 3 feet away from him while she sleeps.    
  
Of course they  _ were _ on watch together but she’s sure Caleb can pick up the slack, he has a fuckin’ cat. What does she have? A dog 1000’s of miles away and a room she can’t run into and scream.   
  
  
  
  
  
__  
  
  
  
  



End file.
